Press release
AVANGRID: Maine Supreme Court Rules State-Issued Lease For NECEC Transmission Project Valid
PORTLAND, Maine — November 29, 2022 — In a long-anticipated decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court today ruled that the State of Maine acted within its constitutional authority in granting a lease to NECEC developers for the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line project. When completed, the project will connect 1,200MW of clean hydropower to the New England electrical grid.
The following is a statement from Scott Mahoney, Senior Vice President – General Counsel at AVANGRID:
“Today’s ruling by the Law Court is yet another step in the right direction for Maine’s renewable energy future. The serious need for the NECEC project to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, combat climate change, and lower regional energy prices remains unchanged. For the past three years, despite opposition funding by fossil fuel interests, every regulatory body at the local, state, and federal level has thoroughly reviewed the New England Clean Energy Connect and all agree the NECEC is beneficial for Mainers. We are pleased with today’s ruling and look forward to determining our next steps for this critical project.”
The court issued its decision in a 50-page ruling, which can be found here. Key sections follow:
“Based on the lack of any “significant and legitimate” countervailing public purpose to justify the voiding of the 2020 lease, we conclude that the Contract Clause does not permit the impairment caused by section 1 of the Initiative (page 34).
The relevant facts in the administrative record are free of ambiguity or dispute. The two tracts of public reserved lands in question— Johnson Mountain and West Forks Plantation—occupy a combined area of 1,241 acres in the Upper Kennebec Region. Their physical characteristics include water bodies, wetlands, and primarily standing timber. There are no unique features or protected areas on either tract. Their predominant use has been for timber harvesting every twenty years, but there are also recreational facilities and an existing 100-foot-wide, three-mile-long utility transmission line on the tracts. The essential purposes of the tracts are to support the multiple uses currently being made of them consistent with the Bureau’s management plans (pages 46-47).
Given the uses, physical characteristics, and essential purposes of the Johnson Mountain and West Forks Plantation tracts, we see no reasonable basis for deciding that a second utility transmission line occupying 2.6% of the combined tracts could significantly alter the physical characteristics of so much of the remaining 97.4% that the multiple-use purposes for which the tracts are held would be frustrated (page 48).”
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About Avangrid: Avangrid, Inc. is a leading U.S. energy company investing in grid infrastructure and power generation projects to deliver reliable energy and meet growing electricity demand. With approximately $50 billion in assets and operations across 25 states, Avangrid is helping modernize the U.S. electric grid, improve system resiliency, and support economic growth for the customers and communities it serves.
Avangrid owns and operates seven electric and natural gas utilities, serving more than 3.4 million customers in New York and New England. Avangrid also has nearly 100 energy generation facilities across the United States and more than 11 gigawatts of installed capacity. Avangrid has more than 8,300 employees and was named among the World's Most Ethical Companies in 2026 for the eighth consecutive year by the Ethisphere Institute. Avangrid is a member of the Iberdrola Group.
About Iberdrola: With a market capitalization of more than €140 billion, Iberdrola is the largest electricity company in Europe and one of the two largest in the world. The Group serves more than 100 million people around the world and has a workforce of 45,400 employees and assets of €165 billion. In 2025, Iberdrola posted a record net profit of €6.3 billion. The company contributes close to €10.4 billion in taxes in the countries where it operates and supports more than 500,000 jobs throughout its supply chain, thanks to €13.2 billion in purchases from tens of thousands of suppliers.
Since 2001, Iberdrola has invested more than €175 billion in electricity networks, renewable energy and energy storage to help create an energy model based on electrification. The company has close to 1.4 million km of electricity networks in the United States (the states of New York, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts), the United Kingdom (Scotland, England and Wales), Brazil (the states of Bahia, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul, as well as Brasilia) and Spain, as well as 57,000 MW of capacity worldwide, of which more than 46,000 MW is renewable.
